"This matter is not entirely without room for maneuver." Mr. Qingfeng said with one hand behind his back, looking confident.

Prince Yong raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Tell me quickly, sir."

Mr. Qingfeng laughed, “Our army pretended to be bandits when they entered the village, so let’s shift the blame onto the bandits. Besides, we don’t need to use this tactic on every team. Only by mixing the real and the fake can we prevent people from distinguishing between them.”

Prince Yong suddenly realized, "I understand!"

As long as he pins the blame for the massacre on the bandits and claims that the other groups are his men, then he won't be held responsible.

Seeing that he was still obedient, Mr. Qingfeng smiled with relief. "Your Highness only needs to issue a proclamation stating that the grain we went to plunder was the tax grain that those people owed Your Highness before. The massacre of the village must not be admitted."

Upon hearing this, Prince Yong gave him a thumbs up, "Brilliant! Sir, you are truly brilliant!"

When he occupied Qiongzhou, he levied heavy taxes on the people, both openly and secretly. The people didn't owe him anything, but of course he wouldn't admit it.

Mr. Qingfeng smiled but remained silent.

...

Lu Yanzheng, along with Qin Shen and A Ping, hurried to Qiongzhou and arrived in just one day. They arrived just as Jiang Qinyu opened her eyes.

However, Lu Yanzheng could not spare any thought for Jiang Qinyu at this moment. After arriving in Qiongzhou, he immediately began to arrange various matters, and Qiongzhou was placed under a state of first-level combat readiness and martial law.

Upon seeing Lu Yanzheng, Qiongzhou Prefect Lu Yao immediately knelt down and begged for forgiveness, saying, "Your Highness, it was my dereliction of duty that led to the loss of thirteen villages and the massacre of the people in two villages. I beg Your Highness to punish me severely!"

As he spoke, he took off his official hat and placed it on the ground, then knelt down for a long time.

Although it was just a fleeting glance, Lu Yanzheng noticed that Lu Yao's eyes were dark red, the tear tracks at the corners of his eyes were still wet, and his whole spirit seemed to have been drained away.

Even under such circumstances, he did not abandon a large number of affairs and run away, which alone speaks volumes about his character.

“Lord Lu, please rise,” Lu Yanzheng stepped forward and bent down to help him up. “This matter is not your fault. Now that things have come to this, what we need to do is minimize the impact of this incident and avenge the dead people as soon as possible.”

His calmness and tolerance moved Lu Yao. He stood up and stared blankly at Lu Yanzheng. "Your Highness, you...you don't blame me?"

“It’s not your fault,” Lu Yanzheng shook his head. “The villages they plundered were all outside the towns, and we can’t possibly send troops to guard every village. When something like this happens, it can only be said that the imperial court is inhumane, but it’s not your problem.”

Lu Yao's nose tingled, and tears welled up in his eyes again, but this time he held them back and nodded, saying, "This subordinate knows what to do!"

With such an enlightened ruler, even if they ultimately fail, he can face the ancestors of the Lu family with a clear conscience!

Lu Yanzheng nodded and began to arrange the follow-up work one by one.

At first, Lu Yao and the other officials from Qiongzhou were somewhat grief-stricken, but the more they listened to Lu Yanzheng, the more agitated they became.

After arranging everything, Lu Yanzheng glanced at everyone and then said calmly, "Three days later, I will personally lead the navy from Qionghe into Yuehai. It is expected that we will meet up with Vice General Qin's 50,000 troops at Lingdu on the east bank of the Yuehe River in ten days. The other six land forces will proceed as planned and meet up at Chenyu Mountain, fifty miles outside the capital, a month later."

"Your subordinate obeys!"

"Your Highness is wise!"

"..."

The shouts from the crowd nearly lifted the roof off. Only after Lu Yanzheng left did they hurriedly depart, each going about their own business.

Lu Yao was even more motivated, staying up for three nights in a row to prepare all the provisions needed for the seven armies and the navy within half a month.

The prince trusts him so much, he must not let the prince down!

However, for every person who supports Lu Yanzheng's decision, there is someone who opposes it.

The group of veteran officials from Qiongzhou who remained earlier strongly disapproved of Lu Yanzheng's actions. They had been gathering privately in recent days, expressing their bewilderment at his behavior.

"Alas, they are still too young! Qiongzhou's navy has less than 200,000 troops, half of whom are new soldiers. How can such a force fight against the imperial court?"

"I always said we should have stopped coveting power and wealth and just taken our families to the countryside for refuge..."

"Come on, you're going to seek refuge in the countryside. Look at the villages that were massacred a few days ago. Who knows if your village will be massacred too?"

"Stop arguing, all of you! The prince is setting off for war tomorrow. We need to find a way to hold him off!"

"What method? I can't think of anything, you guys tell me..."

The group of people, each in charge and with their own agendas, discussed things haphazardly all night without coming to any conclusions, and in the end, they parted on bad terms.

Upon receiving the news, Qin Shen immediately whispered a few words to Lu Yanzheng.

Lu Yanzheng scoffed, "They're just clowns. By the time they return from this expedition, it'll be time to replace them."

In order to stabilize the officialdom in Qiongzhou, he had specially kept a group of people without murder cases in inconspicuous and unimportant positions. Now that Lu Yao has stabilized the situation, those people are no longer needed.

Regardless of whether he will succeed to the throne of Da Yue in the future, anyone who works under him cannot be a freeloader.

"Yeah, they're actually afraid to confront the imperial court head-on? It's laughable! Who's afraid? I've wanted to give those lazy bums in the imperial court a good beating for ages!" Qin Shen scoffed.

Lu Yanzheng twitched the corner of his lips. "Ignore them. Is everything else prepared?"

"Everything is ready," Qin Shen said seriously when it came to business. "We'll just have to set off at dawn tomorrow."

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